


Te Nuhun

by QuillAndInkWrites



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Angst, Boba Fett Survives, Boba Fett has a very niche sense of humor, Canon Compliant, Clone Troopers Speak Mando'a (Star Wars), Clone humor, Clones, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Good Parent Jango Fett, Humor, I really hope other people use that tag, Mandalorian Boba Fett, Mando'a Language (Star Wars), POV Boba Fett, POV Third Person, The Mandalorian (TV) Spoilers, he gets it from his dad, he shares it with about 3 million family members, that's the entire fic, with some angst in the middle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:27:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28113861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuillAndInkWrites/pseuds/QuillAndInkWrites
Summary: The Fetts are only funny to a select few people, to Boba's utter chagrin.ORFive people who don't really get the joke, and one person who finally does.Podfic in end notes.
Relationships: Boba Fett & CT-6116 | Kix, Boba Fett & Jango Fett, Din Djarin & Boba Fett
Comments: 65
Kudos: 538





	Te Nuhun

**Author's Note:**

> SO THIS CAME INTO MY HEAD DUE TO THE MOST RECENT EPISODE OF THE MANDOLORIAN (BOBA'S CLONE JOKE) AND WOULDN'T GO AWAY
> 
> SO APPARENTLY I WRITE STAR WARS FANFICTION NOW TOO?? WHATS GOING ON SHFGKSFH I DIDNT EXPECT THIS
> 
> Anyways, the title, Te Nuhun, means The Joke in Mando'a because I literally couldn't help myself, just like the Fetts. Also it matches The Mandalorian episode titles! Other Mando'a translations can be found in the end notes.
> 
> Warning for canon angsty shit, rated T only for cursing.
> 
> Enjoy, friends! <3

Boba, still held on his father's hip, hears an exchange he won't understand for another year or two.

"Oh! Is he yours?" A Togruta woman asks his father. "He looks just like you!"

Jango says, "he takes after his mother," and bursts into laughter that lulls Boba to sleep, resting his small hands on his father's chestplate.

The Togruta woman doesn't get the joke.

On Coruscant with his father, Jango and Boba sit and wait for Jango's target to leave their home.

A stranger, who knows Jango in passing but not Boba, says "hello, little one. What's your name?"

Boba looks up at Jango, who he can tell is smiling under his helmet, and when Jango nods Boba launches headfirst into an excited, childish conversation with the stranger.

"When I grow up," Boba declares, a few minutes in, "I want to be just like my _buir._ "

Jango snickers, then snickers some more, louder, while the stranger just nods in the way one does to all _adike._

Then the target is on the move and they have to go.

Boba knows that he's a clone. He knows he has no mother, only his father and millions of big brothers. He likes it this way. His father never lied to him about how he was born, never bit around the truth. Jango trusts him, and loves him, and being _buir_ and _ad'ika_ is more than enough for Boba without another _buir._ He's happy that he's just like his father. He doesn't really have to guess what he'll look like when he's older.

His brothers and father are lost. Boba is a teen, sixteen standard years old, with a suit of armor that's too big for him, memories of a rain-soaked planet, _jetii_ who turned on his father, and millions of brothers following a dark terror. Mandalorians are warrior people, yes, but they don't kill without cause. They don't kill innocents simply because they stood in front of a target.

Boba Fett's brothers follow a dishonorable _dar'jetii_. Boba doesn’t know why, but it doesn’t matter. Boba will not.

Well. What he means to say is: If the pay is good ( _it’s incredible_ ), and he isn't bringing in innocents…

It does hurt him, though, to accept credits from a _demagolka_ such as Vader. He will sift through the guilt at a later date. He will.

Boba Fett, Mandalorian orphan and renowned bounty hunter, currently employed under Darth Vader, really can't help himself.

The opportunity falls right at his feet.

"I feel like I've seen you before," Lando Calrissian says, sides of the conflict forgotten for a second. It's the first thing out of his mouth when Boba removes his helmet for a moment to wipe the sweat from his forehead. 

"I just have that kind of face," Boba says. He really can't help himself. It was _right there_.

His lips quirk up as he puts his father's helmet back on. 

"My mistake," Lando says, and Boba is so incredibly lucky that he can turn off the helmet's microphone as he snickers, grinning behind the helmet.

"Do you have siblings, Fett?"

Boba shifts at Darth Vader's side.

He knows what he wants to say, but.

He shouldn't.

He really, _really_ shouldn't.

It's a terrible idea to—

"I come from a very large family, Lord Vader," he says, and snickers into his helmet, quiet enough without the mic that Vader's breathing covers it.

Somewhere deep inside of Vader, unbeknownst to Boba, one Knight Skywalker is cackling.

But Lord Vader himself doesn't seem to get what Boba says.

Of anyone to get his jokes, Boba would have expected it to be someone like Vader. Logically old enough to know about the Clone Troopers, definitely someone who knows about Jango Fett, given his hiring of Boba Fett.

_Dar'jetii,_ Boba thinks, almost sullenly, _have no sense of humor._

It's good to be with another Mandalorian, even for a short period of time. Who knows how long it's been since Boba was last around his own people.

But the thing is—

Mando, as he seems to want everyone to call him, doesn't know _shit._

His brain might not exist, save for a small space saved for his _ad'ika._ Boba is still collecting evidence.

But no matter how much brain matter Mando possesses, he’s somehow managed to traipse around the galaxy without a clue about almost anything that crosses his path.

This is the conclusion Boba (somewhat endearingly) comes to when Mando looks at him and _wants to know if he'll scan his face into an Imperial Database._

Inwardly, Boba says _are you kriffing kidding me, Mando?_

Outwardly, Boba says, "Let's just say they might recognize my face."

And gets _nothing._

Boba, though, hasn't had the chance to make a clone joke for a good few years. He will readily admit that he turned off the mic in his helmet and snickered as soon as the others looked the opposite way.

It gets him every time, even if no one seems to appreciate his goddamn hilarious sense of humor.

He doesn't know how it happens, but Boba Fett, famous bounty hunter, finds himself helping his old enemies. For the very first time, Boba Fett looks at Leia Organa and doesn't plot her detainment, unconsciousness, or death.

What has the galaxy come to, he wonders.

(He’s glad for the change, but General Organa’s face, changed though it is, only reminds Boba of his time under a monster. He doesn’t regret the hefty payment. He does regret everything else.

He tries not to accept employment from people like Vader again.)

(It does irk him, years later when he learns the truth, that Anakin kriffing Skywalker didn't laugh at his Clone joke. It does, however, further prove his theory that _dar'jetii_ have no sense of humor. Anakin Skywalker had fought alongside thousands of his brothers. He would have gotten the joke.)

Boba is sitting on a bed in the healers rooms, steadily bleeding (and healing) from his left arm under a bacta patch, when a medic walks right up to him and says, in a no nonsense tone that rings shockingly familiar in Boba’s ears, "Why don't you have a facial ID in the system?"

And dear gods. The medic, young though he looks, has his kriffing face.

Boba opens his mouth to say an automatic _I've been busy lately_ and closes it with an audible _snap._

It would be terrible to—

He shouldn’t, but maybe this time someone will finally— 

"I have a pretty common face... Kix," he says, glancing at the medic's name on his uniform. "It might even be worth our time to go ahead and just give me a serial ID. Saves some hassle, if you will."

Kix blinks at Boba for a second, processing. His face gets a little outraged, then a little angry, then a lot confused. It seems that Kix hasn’t quite made the connection to the little boy on Kamino or to his other _vod’e._

Boba snickers, though, no helmet to hide the sound or the way he purses his curling lips to keep the sound in. It's a distinctly _Jango_ thing, which makes him love it even more, always, and in this case makes the entire joke that much funnier.

Kix's jaw _drops._

Boba starts laughing.

Kix, after a good three seconds' delay, snorts and follows Boba into shocked, vaguely hysterical laughter, tinged with a faint shade of grief.

Boba makes a note in the back of his head to ask Kix what happened to him, for him to be so damned young.

Later, though.

For now…

"I've been waiting years for someone to realize I'm funny, _vod'ika,_ " Boba says, chuckling under his breath, just a quiet sound and a soft huff of air, surprising himself with the softness in his voice. "It seems I can always rely on my _vod'e._ "

Kix grins a wry grin that sends Boba right back to Jango telling a Togruta woman _he takes after his mother,_ holding a toddling Boba on his hip. It's such a faint memory now, almost a dream, but Boba still remembers his father's chest shaking with familiar laughter, the grin that was surely on his lips as he made a joke just for himself.

"Of course you can," Kix says, wry on the surface, just barely hiding unfiltered joy and grief. Damn, Boba needs to catch up with his _vod'ika_ soon.

(And he truly is younger, despite the head start years ago. It’s curious.)

"We all have identical senses of humor," Kix continues, grin widening.

Boba _howls_ with laughter.

**Author's Note:**

> Some Mando'a translations:
> 
> Buir - father/mother/parent  
> Adike - children/little ones  
> Ad'ika - child  
> Jetii - Jedi  
> Dar'Jetii - Sith  
> Demagolka - monster  
> Vod'e - brothers  
> Vod'ika - little brother
> 
> I hope y'all like this as much as I do! As always with me, comments and kudos are treasured and appreciated but never required <3

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[podfic] Te Nuhun](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29108433) by [reena_jenkins](https://archiveofourown.org/users/reena_jenkins/pseuds/reena_jenkins)




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